British Palestine Mandate:
The Arab Community Under the Mandate

(1922 - 1948)

The British
Mandate and the intensification of
Jewish settlement in Palestine significantly
altered Palestinian leadership structures
and transformed the socioeconomic base
of Palestinian
Arab society. First, British policy
in Palestine, as elsewhere in the Middle
East, was based on patronage. This policy
entailed granting wide powers to a small
group of competing traditional elites whose
authority would depend upon the British
high commissioner. In Palestine, Herbert
Samuel granted the most important posts
to two competing families, the Husaynis
(also seen as Husseinis) and the Nashashibis.
Of the two clans, the Husaynis were given
the most powerful posts, many of which had
no precedent under Ottoman rule. In 1921 Samuel appointed Hajj
Amin al Husayni, an ardent anti-Zionist and a major figure behind the April 1920
riots, as mufti (chief Muslim religious
jurist) of Jerusalem.
In 1922 he augmented Hajj Amin's power by
appointing him president of the newly constituted
Supreme Muslim Council (SMC), which was
given wide powers over the disbursement
of funds from religious endowments, fees,
and the like.

By heading the SMC, Hajj Amin controlled a vast patronage
network, giving him power over a large constituency.
This new patronage system competed with and threatened
the traditional family-clan and Islamic ties that existed under the Ottoman Empire. Traditional
Arab elites hailing from other locales, such as Hebron and Haifa,
resented the monopoly of power of the British-supported
Jerusalem-based elite. Furthermore, as an agricultural
depression pushed many Arabs westward into the coastal
cities, a new urbanbased elite emerged that challenged
the Nashashibis and Husaynis.

Tension between members of Arab elites was exacerbated
because Hajj Amin, who was not an elected official,
increasingly attempted to dictate Palestinian politics.
The competition between the major families and the increased
use of the Zionist threat as a political tool in interelite
struggles placed a premium on extremism. Hajj Amin frequently
incited his followers against the Nashashibis by referring
to the latter as Zionist collaborators. As a result,
Palestinian leadership during the Mandate was fragmented
and unable to develop a coherent policy to deal with
the growing Zionist movement.

The other major transformation in Palestinian Arab
society during the Mandate concerned the issue of land
ownership. During the years of Ottoman rule, the question
of private property rights was never fully articulated.
The tenuous nature of private property rights enabled
the Zionist movement to acquire large tracts of land
that had been Arab owned. The sale of land to Jewish settlers,
which occurred even during the most intense phases of
the Palestinian Revolt, reflected the lack of national
cohesion and institutional structure that might have
enabled the Palestinian Arabs to withstand the lure
of quick profits. Instead, when increased Jewish land
purchases caused property prices to spiral, both the
Arab landowning class and absentee landlords, many of
whom resided outside Palestine, were quick to sell for
unprecedented profits. In the 1930s, when Palestine
was beset by a severe economic depression, large numbers
of Arab peasants, unable to pay either their Arab landlords
or taxes to the government, sold their land. The British
did not intervene in the land purchases mainly because
they needed the influx of Jewish capital to pay for
Jewish social services and to maintain the Jewish economy.